Soe Win (general)
Vice-Senior General Soe Win (Burmese: စိုးဝင်း; pronounced [só wɪ́ɴ]) is the current vice chairman of the State Administrative Council, deputy commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar armed forces) and commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Army. He is also a member of Myanmar's National Defence and Security Council.[1][2] In May 2012, former president of Myanmar Thein Sein appointed him to the working committee of the government team responsible for negotiating with Myanmar's many armed ethnic rebel groups. Soe Win is a close associate of former vice chairman of the SPDC, Vice-Senior General Maung Aye.[1]
Soe Win | |
|---|---|
စိုးဝင်း | |
 | |
| Vice Chairman of the State Administration Council | |
| Assumed office 2 February 2021 | |
| President | Myint Swe (acting) |
| Chairman | Min Aung Hlaing |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services | |
| Assumed office 30 March 2011 | |
| President | Thein Sein Htin Kyaw Win Myint Myint Swe (acting) |
| Preceded by | Vice-Senior General Maung Aye |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Soe Win စိုးဝင်း 1960 (age 61) |
| Citizenship | Burmese |
| Spouse(s) | Than Than Nwe |
| Mother | Chit Sein |
| Father | Kyin Htwe |
| Alma mater | Defence Services Academy |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Myanmar |
| Branch/service |  Myanmar Army |
| Years of service | 1980–present |
| Rank | .gif){kind=small} Vice-Senior General |
| Commands | Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services , Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar Army |
Early life and education
Soe Win was born in 1960 to Chit Sein and Kyin Htwe.[3] In 1976, he attended a cadet course at the Defense Services Academy, alongside Ye Htut, graduating with distinctions in military science and literature.
Military career
In 1980, Soe Win graduated from the Defense Services Academy (DSA) during its 22nd intake. In June 2008, he became the commander of the Northern Regional Command of the Myanmar Army in Kachin State. In August 2010, he became Chief of the Bureau of Special Operations-6 (BSO-6), which oversees military operations in Chin and Rakhine States and the Magwe Region.[1]
Soe Win had also pressured the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to convert into a "Border Guard Force" (BGF) under the control of the military. Despite numerous meetings between Soe win and KIA leaders in July 2009 and August 2010, the KIA did not become a BGF.[1]
In September 2011, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) accused Soe Win of ordering Tatmadaw soldiers to attack KIA positions in Kachin State, thus violating the terms of multiple ceasefire agreements signed prior to the alleged attacks. Soe Win denied the claims, saying that neither he nor anyone else in the Northern Regional Command had ordered an attack on the KIA.[1]
Accusations of corruption
Soe Win has been accused of being involved numerous cases of corruption and extortion during his career as commander of the Northern Regional Command from 2008 to 2010. He has been accused of accepting bribes from companies dealing in jade, timber, and gold, in exchange for concessions from the profits. He was reported to have accepted a 150 million kyat ($149,254USD) bribe from teak businessmen from China's Yunnan Province, in exchange for allowing illicit teak trade on the Myanmar-China border. In March 2010, he ordered Tatmadaw soldiers in Hpakant, Kachin State, to collect military taxes from local jade mining companies.[1]
Personal life
Soe Win is married to Than Than Nwe.[4]
References
- "Tatmadaw Deputy Commander-in-Chief - Regime Watch - ALTSEAN Burma". www.altsean.org. Alternative ASEAN Network (ALTASEAN). Retrieved 7 May 2016.
- "Vice-Senior General Soe Win visits military commands in Pyin Oo Lwin | Ministry Of Information". www.moi.gov.mm. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
- "တပ်ချုပ် ဖြစ်လာနိုင်သူ စစ်သားကောင်း ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး စိုးဝင်း". ဧရာဝတီ. 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
- "ကာကွယ်ရေးဦးစီးချုပ်ရုံး(ကြည်း၊ ရေ၊ လေ)မိသားစုများ၏ ဒသမအကြိမ် မဟာဘုံကထိန် အလှူတော်မင်္ဂလာ အခမ်းအနားကျင်းပ". Tatmadaw Information Team (in Burmese). Retrieved 2021-02-02.